Heavily armed Ethiopian police clashed with stone-throwing rioters in the capital on Tuesday amid soaring new tension between the government and opposition over disputed May elections, witnesses said.
Shots were heard as about 250 riot police deployed in the downtown Mercato area where angry mobs, believed to be led by a hardcore group of about 100 people, had erected barricades of rocks and burning tyres in the streets, they said.
No injuries were immediately apparent but broken glass from shattered store windows littered roads around the Mercato, Addis Ababa’s main market, after the crowds had been dispersed, the witnesses said.
A heavy police presence remained in the area at midday and authorities closed schools in the area and most shopkeepers shuttered their businesses, according to an Agence France Presse correspondent at the scene.
Police officials were not immediately available to comment on the clashes.
Earlier, witnesses and the head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), Adam Melatu, reported “clashes and shootings” in the Mercato on the second day of planned opposition-led protests against the May 15 polls.
The Mercato is the hub of Addis Ababa’s commercial activity and was a centre of deadly election-related violence that broke out in June when police opened fired on crowds during protests against alleged massive fraud by the ruling party.
At least 37 people were killed in those clashes, which authorities blamed on hooligans attempting to cause anarchy and subvert the democratic process.
The government, which has since accused the opposition of attempting to foment a coup, had warned that the new protest measures were unlawful and that it would take all steps necessary to preserve the peace.
It was not immediately clear if Tuesday’s clashes were directly related to the election dispute but witnesses said about 30 taxi drivers participating in a protest had been arrested.
The violence came after the main opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), called at the weekend for a series of protests against the elections, culminating with a five-day general strike to begin later this month.
It urged Ethiopians to boycott the products of government-owned industries, shun state-run media, refuse all contact with security officials beginning on Monday and for motorists to honk their horns in protest between Tuesday and Thursday.
The CUD, which won 109 seats in the polls, accuses the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) of rigging the elections and is boycotting Parliament.
Nearly 100 opposition members have been arrested on weapons charges since September, according to official figures and on Friday the CUD claimed about 20 of its members, including elected lawmakers, had been beaten up by police outside its Addis Ababa headquarters.
Police have denied that claim. – AFP